The story of the unknown caller in Gravity - Aningaaq

A colleague and me were talking about the recent affair of India demonstrating its anti-satellite capabilities and how it might have led to space debris. And on expressing my ignorance about space debris being such a huge issue, he mentioned that Hollywood has already made a movie on it. And that's how I ended up deciding on watching Gravity (and a bunch of other movies. Interstellar is in the pipeline as well because of the black-hole business 😃 )

The movie is beautifully made and delves upon subjects of loss, moving on and the will to live. It also made me think about the many astronauts who have lost their lives in the pursuit of space exploration. Signing up for a job this risky requires mettle.



In the movie, there is a sequence where the drifting astronaut accidentally connects on radio to a person named 'Aningaaq' who's calling from Earth. The caller is not shown in the movie and the conversation goes on about things like dogs, babies and lullabies before the radio disconnects. The viewer has no idea what happened. So I ended up looking it up on the internet and I was not disappointed.

It turns out Jonás Cuarón (writer of the movie and son of the director Alfonso Cuarón) has directed a short film named after the caller, explaining the story of the unseen caller. Turns out this guy is stuck in a vast uninhibited expanse of his own and a bit worried about the impending death of one of his dogs. He however seems to think that death is a certainty and it is in our best interests to move on, to let go! A message maybe to the astronaut who hasn't been able to get over the death of her daughter. Ironically, the tagline of the movie was 'Don't Let Go'!

A very poignant short story to accompany a very beautiful movie.


 

A movie however beautiful still has its sins! Watch the sins of Gravity here! :)